Benefits for former Outer Space owner Steve Rodgers takes place Sunday at Toad’s Place & Best Video

By Mark Zaretsky

Updated
11:42 pm EDT, Friday, April 13, 2018

Photo: Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Steve Rodgers, former owner of The Space, The Outer Space and The Ballroom at The Outer Space.

Steve Rodgers, former owner of The Space, The Outer Space and The Ballroom at The Outer Space.

Photo: Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media

Benefits for former Outer Space owner Steve Rodgers takes place Sunday at Toad’s Place & Best Video

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

It would be hard to count the number of musicians Steve Rodgers helped, mentored, befriended and gave gigs to during all the time he owned and ran The Space, The Outer Space and adjacent Ballroom and performed in Mighty Purple.

So perhaps it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that now that he’s run into some difficulties and had to close his businesses while also dealing with health issues — with a sizeable debt to retire on the business end of things — his many friends might want to give something back.

Admission to either is a suggested donation of $10, with attendees urged to give whatever they can. The $10 suggested admission price to either gig will get you into both.

Tickets for the Toad’s Place gig are available in advance at www.etix.com. Anyone who can’t make it to either but still wants to give — or who wants to give more than $10 — can do so online at www.gofund

“Steve Rodgers has been an invaluable resource to the Greater New Haven music scene for a couple of decades or more,” and during that time “has nurtured, I’m sure, hundreds of young musicians and their audiences,” said Hoffman of Best Video.

“I know from our perspective, when we made the transition to going from a video store to a nonprofit cultural center, Steve could have seen us as competition, but he was very gracious, supportive” and helped every way he could, Hoffman said.

“So when I heard that they were putting together benefits to help Steve deal with monetary issues from the closing of The Space and the Outer Space ... we just wanted to be part of that in playing a role to show our appreciation for the role that Steve has played in the musical culture,” he said.